Chapter 1 - HE ISN'T EVEN YOUR SON
Margaret Carter was already swinging the wooden baseball bat when Rachel saw her.
Five-year-old Lily stood trapped between a banquet chair and the long birthday table.
Pink party hat crooked.
Pale-pink dress shaking with her body.
The bat came down.
Lily screamed and stumbled backward.
The wooden barrel smashed into the chair beside her.
Another swing.
The bat cracked against the table edge.
Glasses jumped.
Cake plates slid.
“MOM!”
Rachel ran.
Margaret glared straight at Lily.
“DEFECTIVE GENES!”
Rachel threw herself between them.
She wrapped one arm around Lily and turned her own body into a shield.
Margaret swung again.
Rachel raised her guarded forearm.
The bat struck it with a hard thud.
Pain shot to her elbow.
No break.
No blood.
Enough.
“DON’T TOUCH MY CHILD!”
She shoved Lily safely behind her.
Margaret lowered the bat and pointed it toward the little girl.
“I want a grandson!”
Guests froze.
Margaret pointed again.
“Not that defective girl!”
Rachel stopped breathing.
Behind Margaret, Daniel Carter remained seated.
Thirty years old.
Plaid shirt.
Glasses.
Hands on the edge of the table.
Silent.
Rachel looked at him.
Waiting.
Daniel whispered:
“Mom…”
Margaret snapped:
“Stay out of this.”
And he did.
That hurt almost as much as the bat.
Rachel charged.
She smacked the bat from Margaret’s hands.
It skidded beneath the banquet table.
Rachel grabbed Margaret by both shoulders and shoved her backward against the edge.
“Get off me!”
Rachel slapped her.
Gasps filled the room.
Daniel finally stood.
“Rachel, stop!”
Rachel turned toward him.
Then back to Margaret.
Her hands trembled.
Not from fear anymore.
“You think I know nothing?”
Margaret’s expression changed.
Rachel pointed directly at Daniel while staring into Margaret’s eyes.
“He isn’t even your son.”
Everything stopped.
Margaret went white.
Daniel stared.
“What?”
Rachel leaned closer.
“You lied to everyone.”
Margaret opened her mouth.
Nothing came.
Daniel looked from his wife to the woman who had raised him.
“Mom?”
Margaret whispered:
“Rachel doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
Rachel reached into her purse.
She pulled out a folded photocopy.
Daniel recognized the seal of the Cook County court.
Rachel placed it on the ruined birthday table.
FINAL DECREE OF ADOPTION.
Child: Daniel James Mercer.
Adoptive mother: Margaret Elaine Carter.
Daniel did not touch it.
He only stared.
Lily cried behind Rachel.
May you like
And Margaret said the one thing that told Rachel exactly how much the truth frightened her.
“You had no right to open that file.”
